


You Got This, Buddy

by SummerInAmsterdam



Series: EtNuary [2]
Category: Escape the Night (Web Series), Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alternate Universe - Hogwarts, Andrea B deserves more love, Friendship, Gen, Patronus, Self Confidence, Self-Doubt, So does this friendship, Spells & Enchantments
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-03
Updated: 2020-01-03
Packaged: 2021-02-27 09:34:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,509
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22094926
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SummerInAmsterdam/pseuds/SummerInAmsterdam
Summary: Andrea starts to doubt her confidence in her spell casting, but she's able to get through it with some help from her best friend.EtNuary Day 2: Andrea Brooks
Relationships: The Fixer | Andrea Brooks and The Mobster | Timothy DeLaGhetto, The Investigative Reporter | Safiya Nygaard/Tyler Williams (minor)
Series: EtNuary [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1589350
Comments: 16
Kudos: 10





	You Got This, Buddy

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [The Sorting of Escape the Night](https://archiveofourown.org/works/16057103) by [canufeelthemagictonight](https://archiveofourown.org/users/canufeelthemagictonight/pseuds/canufeelthemagictonight). 



Tim stretched his arms out as he and Andrea walked out of their History of Magic class. That was the fifth class Tim had slept through. Quite frankly, Andrea didn’t see what the problem was. Sure, Professor Binnus was kind of boring, but the material was really fascinating!

Tim yawned and said, “How can you stay awake through all that?”

“What are you talking about?” Andrea asked. “I think that class is cool!”

“Yeah. You and all the other big-brained dudes in Ravenclaw. So, just out of curiosity…”

Andrea sighed. She knew what he was about to ask. “Fine, but you can’t keep borrowing my notes for that class all the time. One of these days, you’re gonna have to actually stay awake and pay attention.”

“Aaauugh!” Tim whined.

Andrea decided to give him a taste of his own medicine. “Aaauugh!” she groaned, mocking her friend.

“ _Aaaaauuuugh!_ ” Tim repeated.

“ _Aaaaaaauuuuuugh!_ ”

“ _Aaaaaaaaauuuuuuuugh!_ ”

“ _AAAAAAAAAAAUUUUGGHH -_ oh, look, we’re here.”

“ _AAAAAAAAUUUU_ \- oh, hey, you’re right.” Tim snapped out of his whining.  
They were so caught up in their conversation that they hadn’t realized how close to their Defence Against the Dark Arts class they were. Andrea mentally prepared herself. For the past couple of classes, they’d been learning about Patronuses. This would be their final day of practicing the charm, and Andrea still couldn’t summon hers. She was starting to doubt that she’d ever be able to get it right.

“Hey, you good?” Tim asked. He always seemed to know when something was bothering her. “Is it the charm?”  
Andrea sighed. “I still can’t cast it whenever I try. Not even a spark or anything.”

“Hey, don’t sweat it, man. It’s pretty advanced stuff. Everyone had trouble with it for a while.” He glanced around the halls for a split second. “Between you and me, I tried to practice it the other day, and I accidentally turned my cat into a candle.”

“ _What?!_ ” Andrea chortled. “How did you manage to turn in into a different spell entirely?”

“I have no idea!”

They both laughed. Andrea had known Tim since long before they were enrolled into Hogwarts. He always knew how to make her laugh, and he was always there for her when she needed him. She felt a lot less alone knowing that he’d be there with her today.

 _Maybe today won’t be so bad,_ she hoped.

“Now remember,” their professor told them as he prepared the end of the lesson, “the Patronus charm is one of the most difficult charms to master. Even the greatest witches and wizards in history had a lot of trouble getting ahold of it the first time. It’s very, _very_ advanced magic, so don’t worry if you’re still having trouble. Just do your best, and focus on the happiest memories you have. The happier the memory, the better the charm will work.”

The students moved to an open area of the classroom so they had more room to practice. Andrea steadied herself and got ready to cast the charm. She straightened up, pulled her wand out of her robe, and carefully waved it around in a circular motion. She tried to focus on something that made her happy, but it was a little difficult at first. When she thought she was getting close, all she could think about was whether or not she’d get it right.

“ _Expecto Patronum!_ ” she exclaimed.

She flicked her wand, but nothing happened.

“Dammit,” she cursed. She raised her wand again. “ _Expecto Patronum!_ ”

She tried again, and again, but still no dice. It was just like it had been the past few times she’d tried. 

She looked around at her other classmates to see if they were doing any better. Some of them were still having trouble, but they were at least getting a bit of sparks from their wands. After a moment, however, they managed to get their Patronuses to come out. She could see a fox, a great grey owl, and a tabby cat to name a few.

Andrea could see DeStorm Power from the Slytherin house summoning a bear. Sierra Furtado from Hufflepuff watched with a wide smile as a doe pranced around her. Safiya Nygaard, one of Andrea’s fellow Ravenclaws, was able to cast her black bird Patronus almost immediately. Beside her, Tyler Williams - one of Tim’s friends from the Gryffindor house - casted a pheasant. 

Tyler turned to Safiya. “What the heck is a _pheasant_ gonna do?” he asked. “Is it gonna just fly around and be all like - ‘ _screw you, dementor!_ ’” He started pecking the air like a bird, making Safiya laugh.

The professor beamed at the students proudly. “You’re all doing great! Keep it up!”

Andrea’s shoulders sagged. For an advanced spell, everyone else seemed to be doing a lot better than she was. She couldn’t even get anything close to a Patronus.

She turned to Tim, who was just starting to exclaim, “ _Expecto Patronum!_ ”

Whisks of blue and white light shot from the tip of his wand. Out of the light came a dog of some sort. It looked like a Jack Russel Terrier. It seemed to be running around, getting higher and higher into the air before it disappeared.

“Woah!” Tim exclaimed, and turned to Andrea with a bright face. “Did you see that?! This is so cool!”

Andrea shared his excitement. “Great job, Tim! That’s awesome!”

She lightened up a lot at the sight of how happy Tim was. She was genuinely excited for him - she _really_ was! But she had a hard time being totally happy with herself.

“What’s the matter?” Tim asked. He sounded worried.

“I mean,” Andrea said with a disappointed shrug. “Look at everyone else. They’re having, like, no trouble with this. I’m trying to focus, but I can’t. All I can think about is how much I suck at this.”

Tim made a face, like he was thinking about what to do.

“Well…” Tim said. “Remember what we were told about this spell?”

“That is was practically impossible?”

“That we had to think about our happiest memories. What’s something that makes you happy?”

Andrea thought about that for a moment. The happier the memory, the better chance that the spell would work…

“Let’s see…” Andrea muttered. “Well, tinkering with stuff, I guess. Also my sister, my parents, my friends…”

“Okay then,” Tim said with a grin. “Try and focus on memories that involve those things.”

“Alright, I’ll do my best.”

“Hell yeah, you will!”

Andrea smirked, and held her wand out in front of her. She was still unsure if it was going to work or not, but that didn’t mean she wasn’t determined to try.

“Come on, bud,” Tim encouraged her. “The happiest thing you can remember. You can do it!”

Andrea closed her eyes and took a deep breath. 

_Happiest memory,_ she thought. _Come on… where are you?_

She dug through her head until the happiest of memories came to mind. She remembered messing around with some of her old tinker toys back at home as a little kid. Running around and playing with her twin sister when they were little. Her parents taking her on a picnic on her eleventh birthday, just before she was accepted into Hogwarts. Getting into mischief with Timothy for so many years.

She felt the muscles in her face start to relax. Her chest felt light, and she let herself smile.

Andrea waved her wand one more time. “ _Expecto Patronum!_ ”

She opened her eyes at a sound like a rushing river with a flick of her wand. A stream of pleasant blue light started flying into the air from the tip of her wand. Stars followed the light, as if the night sky were presenting itself in front of her. Out of the streams emerged a hare. It hopped high up into the air as she focused on her happiest memories.

Andrea watched in awe as the hare danced around the room. Other students took sight of it, too. Once it did a lap around the room, it came back to Andrea. It circled around her, and Andrea couldn’t help but laugh giddily as it finally faded away after a moment.

“Good job, Andrea!” the professor praised.

“Hey, you did it!” Tim exclaimed as he threw an arm around her shoulders. “You really did it!”

Andrea was completely over the moon. She did it! She actually _did_ that!

“Come on!” Andrea told Tim. “Let’s try together.”

The two friends held out their wands. Andrea concentrated on how the past few minutes made her feel, and she cast the charm with Tim. The Jack Russell Terrier and the hare both materialized out of their respective wands, and started gliding through the air with the rest of the classroom’s Patronuses. The two of them seemed to harmonize together, dancing and running around with one another.

Andrea felt better at that moment than she had all day. She had another happiest memory to think about whenever she needed to summon her Patronus, and all it took was a little help from her best friend.

**Author's Note:**

> Andrea Brooks gives me a lot of Luna Lovegood vibes, is that just me? Anyone else?
> 
> I really loved canufeelthemagictonight's Hogwarts AU, so I decided to write a few stories based off of it for this challenge :)
> 
> Alright, day two's up guys! On the topic of Patronuses, do you guys know what yours are? Mine's a nebelung cat personally, but I'm curious :)


End file.
